Stumbling into the Missional Paradigm: Part Two: A paradigm-busting mission trip

The next 2 posts are stories about a recent mission trip taken to the gulf coast of the U.S. by members of a large denomination to help with the rebuilding process of those whose lives have been disenfranchised by Hurricane Katrina. I was not there. I wish I could have been. The story, as it unfolded was related to me by a dear friend via cell phone, and we experienced more-than-our-share of connection disruptions. Because of that, and because my short-term memory isn't as sharp as it once was, there are some details that I might not have quite right. But, the gist of the story, and the ramifications it holds for those who were there, as well as for us all, have been preserved well enough to get the point across. If you haven't read Part One of Stumbling into Missional, please read it before continuing. It will make this post, as well as the one to follow, more coherent. I am not going to name the denomination, nor involved parties, so please don't ask. My intentions are not to offend anyone, and to name names might risk my doing just that. God is obviously at work there, opening the hearts of traditional church folk to missional faith, and it is a story well worth hearing.

My friend called me after his arrival in a gulf city last Sunday and he was in awe of the devastation that still existed, some 20 months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall there. But he was also immediately moved by the gratitude expressed by the local people. Whenever they would hear their Pennsy accents or see the license plate on his car, they would assume why they were there and would give them a heart-felt thanks for coming to their rescue. Throughout the week, everywhere they went, the group of over 100 volunteers were given the same words of appreciation. I had to wonder whether the people here in Pennsylvania would extend such gratitude if they were in the same situation. It is hard to believe.

Anyway, the teams were dispatched to their assignments working on homes throughout the city, and when comparing notes at the end of each day, my friend said that it was obvious that the teams were benefiting at least as much from their labor as were those whom they had come to serve. One pastor confided that the only reason he had come along was because the D.S. (District Superintendent) had made him come. He possessed exemplary organizational skills which were needed to form the mission trip. He admitted that he had fought the task all the way. But, after a couple of days down there working with these people whose lives had been turned upside-down, his life, too, became turned upside-down--but in a profoundly good way. He told my friend that he felt as if all his years pastoring a traditional church had missed the mark. "This is church!" he proclaimed to my friend, "This is what the church is really supposed to be all about. My ministry will never be the same!" No words that I might add to that testimony could do do more justice than what was said.

That was the first of many such testimonies to come, culminated by one lady pastor standing up and confronting the D.S. at breakfast on the last day of the trip (once again, my paraphrase), "One thing I need an answer for," she began, "What I need to know is why didn't they teach us to do this in seminary, because if they had taught us to do this, we wouldn't have needed to waste our time learning all the things for which I must now unlearn. This is the kind of Christianity I should have been leading my flock into, and it wasn't ever even covered in seminary." The D.S. was quiet. He had no response for her.

My friend was very encouraged that the trip had such an amazing impact on so many of those who volunteered. Their eyes became wide-open to the great blessing of missional faith, and most indicated they will never be the same again. Many have expressed heart-felt interest in joining us in our Ukraine endeavors. Most of these are just simple church folk, not full-time ministers; most of them would probably be judged by some to be nominal believers. But, a taste of mission has busted through the barrier between the attractional and missional paradigms for them and the traditional church, for some, will never be the same. Most of these folks, while not even knowing what terms such as emergent or missional mean, stepped out with what little faith and knowledge they had, none of them "appropriately equipped" for ministry, and they have crossed a line that more-than-a-few missional voices are yet to cross--the line between words and action--that place where Jesus says we all must go if we are to trade in our goat skins for sheep skins.

In my next post, a fiery young prophet confronts the D.S. about the problem with traditional youth ministry, as well as institutional religion in general. Anyone who has a heart for youth needs to hear what he has to say.